The big issue is to get the station secured first. This is going to rely on a supportive land owner but they will of course want to see some renumeration out of this. It will need the public to attend so now you are getting into airshow territory as you will need warbirds and at approx £3,500 for a base price you can already see the costs mounting.

We would need to show as many aspects of the AAF as possible and the collectors would be more than welcome, I remember the displays at Spanhoe and yes, there was some great stuff on show there, as there has been at other events. We do need a station that has a usable runway and as many accessible and usable buildings as possible. There will always be the enthusiasts who would attend this sort of event but you need the general public in to put money in the coffers too, so it will need appropriate marketing. You will need CAA permissions which is not a massive headache if the field is no longer in use. It is worth mentioning this to the warbird community as you may get some who would just fly in anyway so you could score there.

This is very do-able, it just depneds on how big you want it and who is going to do what. It's fine having the ideas, it's how you make them happen that counts.

As you know myself, Howard and John put on Operation Render and Somewhere in Suffolk. We used Rougham as it has a large grass area for camping and to hold a show. It also is a working air field so getting Air craft over it and for some landing on it is no problem. It also has the tower and other old AAF building.

The thing with shows is cost. We put ours on with £1,500...But we did not pay for the ground, marquee and equipment for taking money on the gates.

It may work out cheaper if you spoke to John Agnew the owner of Rougham and run this idea over with him. He may want to help and this would bring your costs down. Also Rougham is easy to get too straight off the A14!

Air Craft cost boo coo dollar. Mustang about £2,500 if you are lucky for a quick fly past. Weather is also a key to a good show and making money. If it rains like it did a Rougham your dead in the water!

Things like porto loos cost about £50 each and there are pumping out charges ect, you need folks to man the gates, car parking and parking stawards, You need 1st aiders and amblance crew, fire Dept etc. The cost mount up very quickly. If you need any help just ask as John Cashmore' Howard and myself as we understand what is needed as we put a large show on.

Just a quick note Rougham Air Show 15 and 16 August should be a good show with plenty of air craft and time to dig some trenches for our Breakout area. Also a good time to chat about your Show...

Well fellas with 2 weeks to go until Rougham i think we need to have a meeting of minds there to discuss.I did a bit of "canvassing" at Beltring and the feedback is massively in favour of doing such an event.....so i cant see why it cant be done.

Band potentially sorted mum has used her connections with the Glenn Miller Orchestra UK and they can ...given specific dates accomodate such an event.....just

Rattlesden and Rougham have to be high on the list of posibilities. It seems that Rattlesden has a bi-annual open day for the 447th BG, so they may be open to hosting a USAAF event. Rattlesden Gliding Club Link

Rattlesden has little space to put on a show and very little grass for such events. The T2 is also packed with Tea! as it is now a storage unit and can not be used . The other AAF building on site are also used for storage / retail uses. The tower is alos used as office space. As for farmers planting grass on any other site they all have to fill in Iaxe forms for their single payments. No farmer is going to plant grass when he can plant wheat etc and get his payments. Also grass takes a good 2 years before it can have heavy stuff on it so you would have to pay the farmer two years worth of lost products for the use of the area this would be in the £20,000 plus bracket depending on size of the area.

Rougham we have a great amount of Air Craft coming for the Breakout slot. Hurricane, Mustang, L4s, and other WWII aircraft. The pilots are up for another go at the Hun!!! Also Fly Past mag will be there....Great time to promote what we do and may help for your show!

Cheero Old Fruits!

PS...Talking of the Hun , does anyone have contact with German groups as we need some prisoners for the day!

I guess we'll have to find a large amount of PSP or Summerfield Tracking from somewhere.Hmmm, That would make a great airfield construction display.

A word of caution regarding having German displays.Strong objections from the relevant USAAF Veterans Association put a stop to one planned event at their former airfield last year.

How about we draw up a shortlist of what the location a) must have, and b) would be nice to have as well, and then work through the sites to see what matches up?

If we're to have aircraft on the ground, I'd assume that it would only the smaller stuff, so would a 25' wide concrete taxiway be sufficient for them to get to a proper parking area? One possible location was able to handle a DC6 on that not so long ago, and currently has large areas down to grass as well.

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